Back to the discussion …

In his traditional way of thinking there is a clear and strict agency-hierarchy. The production slave is at the bottom of the food chain. He or she is eaten by the designer who then gets wolfed down by the copy/art director. On top of it all the Creative Director is orchestrating the gluttony. And that’s the way it always has been … not in every agency of cource, but unfortunately in way to many agencies run predominately by middle aged white men there is a love for the hierarchy.

In my world tech and design/creativity goes hand in hand. But hierarchys like that that is outdated and will strain creativity. Your ideas and creative is not better just because you have the title “Art director”, probably you have a lot more experience in a lot of fields but using the hierarchy today as a validation of quality is wrong.

To me the hieararchy was valid when tech was slow and there were well defined surfaces between the communicator and the reciever, when there was TV, radio, print and old school web. Then the distribution chains and channels of communication was fixed and monopolitized by creatives. It did cost a hell of a lot of money to reach the broad masses, and as a creative you could charge a hell of a lot to let people use your fixed channels. The time from idea to public apperance and impact was long.

But that is pure business and, again, has nothing to do with creativity or quality of ideas.

The essence of personal creativity to me is to capture and realise your ideas, nurture your curiosity and most important get your ideas out in public. To me an idea is worht nothing if it’s not outed and valued and viewed by others.

Back then it was impossible for John Doe to get his stuff out and make an impact on the broader mass and therefore the correct and only way to do things was to move up the hierachical ladder. To support and be apart of the hierarchy.

Today it’s different. The time from idea to apperance and impact is close to zero.

As a creative you need to get into tech cos it’s is the way to commuicate today. It is the way to realise your ideas. It is the way to impact the masses. Tech has made it possible for anyone to have an idea, produce it and make it available for the masses, thus making an impact. And the beauty of it is that tech doesn’t care if you are an art director or production retard. As long as you know how to tech you will have the power to change the world.

You don’t have to become a rockstar developer, you just have to get your ass out of your creative dungeon and move over to where the tools and techs reside. Read, learn, test, try and explore.

I condemn the hierarchy, if you support it you will be sitting with your brilliant ideas in an ancient structure that doesn’t let you realise your ideas. You will be left behind because every idea you have will be made public by someone else long before you.

You can be a brilliant copywriter but noone will hear you.
You can be a fantastic art director but noone will see you.

If you want to make a change, if you want to impact a broad mass. For gods sake, embrace tech.